chloe dykstra

Actress Chloe Dykstra says that after she published an essay accusing ex-boyfriend Chris Hardwick of emotional and sexual abuse, she was "attacked relentlessly" online to the point that she contemplated suicide. In an interview with Time, the first interview she's given since publishing the essay, Dykstra said that groups of people online were dedicated to disproving her, and she became terrified that people would find out where she lived. Dykstra makes an important point — in fact, sexual assault survivors often wait to come forward (or don't come forward at all) because they fear they won't be believed, or that they'll experience retaliation from the alleged perpetrator or even the alleged perpetrator's supporters.

Yvette Nicole Brown, who is replacing Chris Hardwick as the moderator for two AMC panels at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, said that she is not angling for the host’s job and tweeted that she is just “filling in for a friend, which I have done before.”

Chloe Dykstra spoke out on Wednesday to thank her supporters after seeming to accuse her ex-boyfriend Chris Hardwick of abuse. “It is my hope, and it always was, that women and men on both sides of abuse will make changes to either protect themselves, or to stop the cycle of pain their own behavior can cause,” Dykstra wrote.

Geek culture avatar Chris Hardwick has seen swift blowback after actress and former Nerdist host Chloe Dykstra posted a damning online essay late Thursday accusing her ex-boyfriend of “sexual assault,” “controlling behavior” and career sabotage. Nerdist Industries, the podcast-based digital media empire launched by Hardwick and sold to Legendary Entertainment in 2012, was quick to distance itself from its creator.